Learning how to use a guitar pick to play the guitar can be awkward at best, and downright frustrating at worst. Here we have some guidelines for you to help you learn how to use a guitar pick properly.

Here is what you need to know how to do:

1. First you are going to want to open up your picking hand, and you are going to want to turn the palm of your hand so that it is facing you.
2. Now you are going to want to close up your hand, making a relatively loose fist. The thumb on that hand should remain just beside the index finger in your loose fist.
3. Now you are going to rotate your hand in such a way that you are looking at the profile of your fist, and the thumb's knuckle should be facing in your direction.
4. Now, with the other hand you are going to want to slide the pick between the thumb and the index finger. You should make sure that you have the pick located behind the thumb's knuckle at this point.
5. Now you are going to want to make sure that the pick's pointing end is facing away from your fist, and it should be protruding by approximately half of an inch. Make sure that you are firmly holding the pick in place at this point.
6. Now you should be positioning the picking hand over the acoustic guitar's sound hole, or over the guitar's body. The picking hand, with the knuckle of the thumb still facing in your direction, should be hovering above all of the guitar strings.
7. Make sure that you are not resting the picking hand on your guitar's strings or on the body of the guitar.
8. Now you should be using your wrist for the purpose of motion rather than using your entire arm, and you should strike the lowest string on the guitar, which is the sixth string, using a downward motion. If the string rattling in an excessive manner, then you should try striking that string just a little bit softer, or while using less of the actual surface of the pick.
9. Now you are going to want to pick that same string, but this time it should be using an upward motion.
10. Now you are going to want to repeat this process several different times. You should be trying to minimize the motion in the hand that you are picking with. Start with one short stroke downward, and then one upward. This process is one that is known as alternate picking.
11. Now try this same exercise with the fifth string, then the fourth, then the third, the second, and then the first string. Play the scales that you know using the alternate picking method, where you're picking down, then up, then down and so on.

Photo Credits: matsuyuki

Originally posted 2009-10-27 03:42:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related Posts

• 5 Tips for Acoustic Guitar Playing Here are a couple of acoustic guitar tips for free that every beginner should learn sooner than later. Some of it is harder to learn than it is for others; forewarned is forearmed. Guitar Tip #1 - You are incredibly unlikely to hear anyone ever say to themselves "It is......
• Learning the Acoustic Guitar When learning how to properly play the acoustic guitar, versatility is a major goal that you should work towards as best as you can. It is very important to learn all of the different ways you can play the various chords. By learning the different chords that you can play......
• 2 Ways to Learn Acoustic Guitar When people are first learning to play the guitar, the acoustic type is generally recommended over the electric type. The main reason for this is that the strings of an acoustic guitar are tougher, so they build calluses better, and help build finger strength. As for the methods by which......
• Guide to Left Handed Acoustic Guitars One distinctive as well as important group of guitars is the group of left handed guitars. The left handed acoustic guitar is held with the fret board positioned in the right hand, and the guitar player uses his or her left hand to do the picking. The strings of the......
• The Electric Acoustic Guitar The acoustic guitar provides music through strings that were made from a variety of materials, most notably nylon. Nylon is not only kind to the fingers, but the sound it produces is good and crisp. It is especially important for beginners to use nylon since it is easier to learn.......

Related Websites

• Four Tips For Generating Income On The Internet The internet is a great place to sell and promote products and/or services around the world at minimal cost. Compare setting up a business close to your home and try to run the building, staff, utilities etc. To setting up an online business and you can be bringing in nice......
• Learn to Play Bass Guitar For someone starting out with a first instrument, a bass guitar is an excellent choice. The bass guitar is probably the easiest stringed instrument to learn to play, far easier than either an acoustic or electric guitar, a banjo, a mandolin, or a violin, for instance. And a stringed instrument......
• Free Guitar Scales Charts: Learn Without Frustration by Marcus Rolle In other words, even if you are new to the world of guitar playing, even if you only recently have started taking guitar lessons, you might benefit from learning the funk-skunk technique. The funk-skunk technique consists of a player's right hand strumming the strings. While this is......
• Guitar Picks Memorabilia -> Rock, Pop -> Guitar and Guitar Picks When you think of guitar picks, do you think of those tiny rounded triangles of plastic that probably cost about a penny to manufacture? Guitarists used to file down materials like wood, bone, stone, amber, ivory and even metal or shell......
• Learn To Play Guitar Fast With An Online Course by Sid Timmons Which type of guitar comes to your mind first when the subject of guitars comes up? Either you said the electric guitar or the acoustic guitar. The acoustic guitar has been around much longer than the electric guitar, dating back to 1779. The electric guitar did not......

Online Stores

• Takamine Right-Handed Acoustic Guitar Musical Instruments
• Travel Acoustic Guitar Musical Instruments
• Ovation Right-Handed Acoustic Guitar Musical Instruments
• Beginner Packs Acoustic Guitar Musical Instruments
• Alvarez Right-Handed Acoustic Guitar Musical Instruments

If you liked this article, vote for it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon.



Categories:

Acoustic Musical Instruments, Guitars, Playing Tips

Tags:

acoustic guitar, downward motion, fist, guitar strings, index finger, little bit, palm of your hand, sixth string, sound hole, thumb, upward motion